Business

The 30- share Sensex soared 267.26 points, or 0.76 per cent, to 35,429.74. It had rallied 1,161 points in the previous three sessions.

The 30-share Sensex stayed in the positive zone during the Tuesday session and settled 297.38 points higher at 35,162.48.

The trade deficit, or the gap between imports and exports, was estimated at $13.98 billion during September 2018.

The government had, with effect from October 5, cut excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 1.50 per litre and asked state-owned oil firms to subsidise the fuel by another Re 1 a litre.

The new campaign focusing on the fixed income category was a sequel to the 'Mutual Funds Sahi Hai' drive, and slated for launch in September.

The government, within a span of two weeks, has hiked import duty on a host of household items like refrigerators and air conditioners, and telecom and communications system products as it looked to cut import of non-essential items.

The tariff hike, the second such move by India in a two week span, was announced late on Thursday by New Delhi as it attempts to raise import barriers to curtail the import of goods it deems as "non-essential" items.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the sealing of nine properties of Amrapali Group after its three directors said that the documents related to the group's 46 firms were stored there.

Traders said RBI's decision to inject Rs 12,000 crore liquidity into the system through purchase of government bonds on October 11 to meet the festival season demand for funds supported the recovery in rupee.

The court had on Tuesday sent three directors of the group to police custody, directing them to hand over all the documents of the 46 group companies to forensic auditors.

The government announced cuts in excise duty on gasoline and diesel last week to soften the impact of sharp rise in global crude oil prices on consumers.

The 30-share Sensex touched a high of 34,636.43 on the back of sustained buying by domestic institutional investors (DIIs), but later turned choppy and hit a low of 33,974.66 as selling pressure gathered momentum.

The domestic unit crashed below the 74-mark for the first time ever in intra-day trade on persistent capital outflows and high crude oil prices.

In the largest intervention of its kind, the Centre this week replaced the board at IL&FS, a construction and infrastructure firm that had defaulted on a series of repayments to creditors as it struggled under a debt pile of more than $12 billion.

Consistent dollar demand from importers, mainly oil refiners, following higher crude oil prices, kept the rupee under pressure.

The source said the employees in A1-A5, O2 and O3 grade, or whose salaries are up to Rs 75,000 per month, were paid on October 1, while the rest of the staffers in the M2, M3, E1 and above grades have not been paid yet.